Is there a connection between chemical composition and plant classification and evolution? Yes, according to the insightful Helen Abbott Michael who made these conclusions based upon her own studies.

1. "A similarity of one or more chemical constituents is to be found in all plants which are equally developed, and on the same evolutionary plane."
2. "The evolution of chemical constituents follows parallel lines with the evolutionary course of plant forms, the one being intimately connected with the other, and consequently chemical constituents are indicative of the height of the scale of progression, and are essentially appropriate for a basis of botanical classification; in other words, the theory of evolution in plant life is best illustrated by the chemical constituents of vegetable forms."
3. "Chemistry will aid us to comprehend the laws of evolution controlling plant forms. Evolution should also apply to chemical compounds as well as to morphology, since the latter can be shown to depend upon chemistry in general." (Franklin Institute lecture, The Chemical Basis of Plant Forms, Jan. 1887, reprinted in 2, p 233)

In Plant Analysis As an Applied Science, Helen Abbott also predicted

"In the future, ... the synthetical chemist reigns supreme, our coming race, to my imagination, will be chemists and our farms will manufacture our food supply of proteids, sugars, and starch. The surface of the land will be one huge teeming laboratory. The plants, the analytical chemist, and others of his race, asphyxiated by their environment, will have long ago passed away into a suffocating forgetfulness.

But for the present we must be satisfied to depend upon our humble colleagues, the plants, for our food and beverages, our fabrics, perfumes, and dyestuffs, our medicines, and other things too numerous to mention." (Franklin Institute lecture, Jan. 1887, reprinted in 2, pp 208–9)

Helen Cecelia DeSilver Abbott was born on December 23, 1857 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her parents were James Abbott and Caroline Montelius. Not much is known about her family or her early life, other than that her family was wealthy. Helen had governesses, private teachers, and traveled abroad. She was a talented pianist and focused on that until about 1881. During a trip abroad, she purchased a copy of Helmholtz's Treatise on Physiological Optics (2, p 8) in Paris. From this began her deep interest in science. She also had inspirational mentors. "I am especially indebted to Dr. William Thomson...in the many hours of his brilliant conversations I learned to appreciate the meaning of a scientific life and the possibility that would open up to humanity through the scientific spirit..." (2, p 9). A year later, she was accepted into the Woman's Medical College of Philadelphia where she matriculated for two years. She achieved 100% on the chemistry, anatomy, and physiology final examinations both years.

During her second year at the Medical College, Helen had a serious, debilitating fall that made it necessary for her to withdraw from the Medical College. She then worked in the laboratory of Henry Leffman for several months. Her interest in the chemical analysis of plants arose because of an incident where some children had accidentally eaten poisonous roots. As Helen said, "The chemical work in the study of identification fascinated me, and from that time my interest in chemistry centered around the chemical constitution of plants and the chemical life-processes at work in living tissues." (2, pp 15–6). Soon after, Helen joined the chemical laboratory of Professor Henry Trimble at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy.

Abbott's results from the chemical analyses of a variety of plants led her to conclude, in The Chemical Basis of Plant Forms, that saponins (which she showed to be glucosides), for example, are "...plainly a factor in the great middle realm of vegetable life..." (2, p 254). She goes on to propose that a potential area of research is to study "...the conditions which control the synthesis and gradual formation of saponin in plants. The simpler compounds of which this complex substance is built up, if located as compounds of lower plants, would indicate the lines of progression from the lower to the saponin groups." (2, pp 254–5).

During 1887, Abbott traveled to Europe to meet many important scientists. At the end of that year, she began to work with the organic chemist Arthur Michael who was a professor at Tufts College in Boston. They were married in June 1888. Following a trip around the world, they settled in Worcester, Massachusetts where Arthur had accepted a position as Director of the Chemical Laboratory at Clark University. Helen continued her research in Arthur's private laboratory. They returned to Tufts in 1895. After that Helen's research waned. She entered Tufts Medical School and finally obtained her medical degree in 1903. She started a free hospital for the poor and within a year she died after contracting influenza from one of her patients. Helen Abbott Michael died on November 29, 1904.

1. Finley, F. Thomas and Siegel, Patricia J. "Helen Cecilia DeSilver Abbott Michael (1857–1904)" in Women in Chemistry and Physics, A Biobibliographic Sourcebook by Grinstein, Louise S.; Rose, Rose K.; and Rafailobich, Miriam H. Greenwood Press: Westport, Connecticut, 1993; pp 405–409.
2. Michael, Helen Abbott. Studies in Plant and Organic Chemistry, and Literary Papers. (With biographical sketch by Nathan Haskell Dole) The Riverside Press: Cambridge, MA, 1907.
3. Miller, Jane A. "Women in Chemistry" in Women of Science: Righting the Record. Kass-Simon, G. and Farnes, Patricia, ed. Indiana University Press: Bloomington, Indiana, 1990; pp 308–9.
4. Rayner-Canham, Marelene and Rayner-Canham, Geoffrey. Women in Chemistry: Their Changing Roles from Alchemical Times to the Mid-Twentieth Century. American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1998; pp 36–7.
5. Tar bell, Ann Tracy and Tar bell, D. Stanley. "Helen Abbott Michael: Pioneer in Plant Chemistry." Journal of Chemical Education, 1982, 59(7), 548–9.
6. Creese, Mary R. S. and Creese, Thomas M. Ladies In The Laboratory? American and British Women in Science, 1800–1900. A Survey of Their Contributions to Research; The Scarecrow Press, Inc.: Lanham, Maryland, 1998; pp 254, 274, 275, 414.